I am excited to host the latest round (20)
of “They Go Really Well Together” (TGRWT) and am honored to be
following a tremendous group of food bloggers in this endeavor.
This food blogging event was initiated by Martin Lersch in April 2007 to explore flavor pairings suggested by the hypothesis that if two foods have one or more key odorants in common it might very well be that they go well together and perhaps even compliment each other. A list of all previous rounds with links to announcements and round-ups can be found at:http://blog.khymos.org/tgrwt/. I have personally participated in only one pairing so far, but have read through and enjoyed the others. They are great fun and a fine way get past more common ingredient pairings.
Pumpkins are plentiful and quite seasonal at this time of year in the northern hemisphere and useful in so many different types of preparations from soups to appetizers to main courses to desserts. In the U.S., they are probably most often used in the form of a dessert pie, though in recent years the pumpkin's popularity has expanded greatly. I have never really had chicken and pumpkin together before, so this should be interesting.
Participation is easy - just follow these steps:
1. Prepare a dish that combines pumpkin and cooked chicken. You can either use an existing recipe (if there is any) or come up with your own
2. Take a picture of the dish and write an entry in your blog by
December 8th, 2009 with TGRWT #20 in the title. Readers will be
particularily interested in how the flavour pairing worked out, so make
an attempt at describing the taste and aroma and whether you liked it
or not.
3.
A round-up will be posted here with pictures. Please send an email to
[email protected] with the following details: Your name, URL of blog,
URL of the TGRWT #20 post and a picture for your entry in the round-up.
If you don't have a blog, email me your name, location, recipe and a
brief description of how it worked out and I'll be glad to include it
in the final round-up.
So get those pumpkins and start carving out some new dishes!
I have an idea already, great choice of ingredients.
Posted by: Brian | November 10, 2009 at 05:00 AM
Cooked as opposed to roasted? What, exactly, does that mean?
Posted by: Stuart | November 10, 2009 at 06:05 PM
My guess would be that it means anything other than roasted. Simmered, poached, sauteed, grilled ...
I have about six different ideas already!
Posted by: Leanne Opaskar | November 10, 2009 at 06:23 PM
Thats my interpretation as well, Leanne. Roasting gives the bird a somewhat different flavor profile. According to the Food Pairings chart, roasted works with pumpkin too, but is not quite as closely related (i.e. is further away from the pumpkin in the center of the chart). If someone really wanted to use roasted rather than cooked chicken, I wouldnt object.
Posted by: John Sconzo | November 10, 2009 at 06:52 PM
Fun combo. I'm glad it didn't end up with lemongrass since that was a bit too tame for my tastes :)
Posted by: Gfron1 | November 10, 2009 at 08:34 PM
Can you explain how the mistake was made (lemongrass) so I don't do the same? I thought I knew how to read it but now I am doubting myself.
Posted by: sygyzy | November 11, 2009 at 12:04 AM
I have checked the pumpkin flavour pairing chart and saw that cooked chicken was very closed and related to it, but when I have looked at the cooked chicken chart I could not find the pumpkin. Isn't this a bit bizarre?
Posted by: antonella | November 11, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Antonella, that is bizarre. I must admit, I came to the pairing from the point of view of pumpkin and did not look at the converse.
Posted by: John Sconzo | November 11, 2009 at 02:29 PM
Nice combo. I missed the last round while getting settled into a new job but I'm going to try to squeeze this one into the schedule.
Posted by: Tri2Cook | November 23, 2009 at 08:44 PM
I am looking forward to it!
Posted by: John Sconzo | November 23, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Sorry - I really did try, but my parents were over for a week and after that I moved back to Catalunya. I've been staying with various friends since in Barcelona in Girona since and I'll be flying back to London tomorrow night. So it's not looking great for me to make the deadline. I was thinking of a modern spin on the classic Khmer dish Cha Lpoeu Sach Monn.
Posted by: Trig | November 30, 2009 at 12:19 PM
I'm sorry to miss out on this round... It's been a busy month, and when looking for pumpkin some time ago I actually couldn't find any (it's easy to find in November before Halloween, not so easy in December here in Norway). But I'm looking forward to the round-up anyway!
Posted by: Martin | December 09, 2009 at 04:35 PM